License Plate Recognition (LPR) systems are typically employed to scan and log license plate information associated with vehicles in publically accessible areas. A typical LPR unit performs image analysis on captured images to identify the license plate number associated with each image. The LPR unit generates a record for each license plate number captured. The record may include any of an optical character recognition (OCR) interpretation of the captured license plate image (e.g., output in text string object format), images of the license plate number, an image or images of the vehicle associated with the license plate number, the date and time of image capture, and the location of the image capture. By operating a LPR unit for prolonged periods of time at a given location, the amount of license plate information grows.
Media displays are typically employed to deliver advertising content to viewers in a wide variety of settings. Simple, static media displays (e.g., printed or painted graphics and text) remain widely used. Typically, the content of a particular static media display is fixed for a lengthy period of time (e.g., weeks or months). In addition to static media displays, dynamic media displays have also been widely adopted. The content of dynamic media displays can be frequently refreshed. Traditionally, this ability has been utilized to display a series of advertisements so that a passerby may see more than one advertisement before the viewing opportunity ends.
Both static and dynamic media displays are typically located in highly visible areas based on the rationale that highly visible displays reach more potential customers. Moreover, specific advertising content is often displayed in a particular location based on a limited understanding of the aggregate demographic profile of viewers at that location. However, in many contexts the understanding of the demographic profile of viewers of media displays at any given time and the evolution of the demographic profile over time remains very limited. As a consequence, the effectiveness of displayed advertising content is limited. The uncertainty surrounding the effectiveness of display sign advertising generates resistance to capital investment to replace existing signs with more costly signs that provide the ability to display digital media. Improvements in the identification of a demographic profile of viewers at a particular location, its evolution over time, and the selection of media content targeted to the identified demographic profile is desired.